Vandals hit Oregon site bombed by Japanese in World War II

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GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- A display marking an Oregon site bombed by the Japanese in World War II has been defaced by graffiti and racist symbols.

Officials estimate damages at $6,000. Several cinder blocks were removed from a retaining wall, and the vandals damaged four large interpretative panels describing the Japanese Bombing Site Trail, dedicated last month near Brookings.

They also carved racist symbols and text into a handcrafted redwood bench.

On Sept. 6, 1942, a Japanese plane dropped a bomb at Wheeler Ridge, intended to start forest fires. A second strike inland from Cape Blanco came three weeks later.

They were the only Japanese strikes from an airplane on the continental United States in the war.